Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Ask me about Dessert

What's the fun of catering dessert? What's not the fun of catering dessert? But I DO LOVE TO HAVE A REASON to make dessert. And I adore having a reason to try something I love or have never done before; dessert for two is so different than dessert for a group. We simply don't need a whole pie (well, Dave would argue with that.) We don't want a whole cake or two quarts of ice cream, which is what my new ice cream maker makes. But if I'm asked to bring dessert or have a catering job, I get to do the whole shebang.(Scroll down for Lemon-Syrup Pound Cake with Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream and Blueberry Drizzle.)

Individual Pear-Orange Crostatas. They're flavored with lemon or orange and have a streusel topping with or without almonds.

Coffee Cup Pies

Pagliacci's New York Cheesecake

Any kind of whole pie

I start with numbers. How many people? When? Where? What's the menu?

The menu was tenderloin and fennel gratin with a carrot salad starter. One that I blogged, in fact. I thought that left me scotfree to make whatever I wanted. The meal wasn't so heavy that I needed to do a baby shot of custard and squeensy-tweentsy cookies. It wasn't so light that I needed to make tiramisu. I offered several options:

Bread Pudding!

Jam Tart?

Basket of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!

or....

--Chocolate pots de creme and ginger cookies

--Lemon poundcake and strawberry ice cream

--Fig-Brandy Vanilla Pudding with Skinny Fluted
Shortbread

--Apple-Sour Cream-Walnut Pie w or w/out homemade vanilla ice cream

--Apple Tart w or without cinnamon ice cream

--Espresso pots de creme and milk chocolate chip-pecan cookies

--God's Own Brownies or God's Own Brownie Sundaes

--Chocolate-Dipped Salty Shortbread and Coffee Gelato

--Whole Lemon Tart

--Jam Tart

You can ask for pot pie, too, if you need dinner. Here: Turkey Roasted Vegetable

The choice this time was Lemon pound cake and strawberry ice cream. After 2 seconds thought, I added a blueberry drizzle--for color and a flavor pop. Instead of reinventing any wheels, I took two or three recipes and decided on my method. I like SILVER PALATE'S Lemon Pound Cake, but it was made in a bundt pan and I really wanted loaf pound cake as my group was small and a second loaf could go in the freezer. I checked out Ina Garten's Lemon Cake from her The Barefoot Contessa PARTIES book and ended up with a mixture of the two recipes aided by Marion Cunningham's from Fanny Farmer Baking Book, which is my easy go-to for most things. In fact, I end up with both the bundt cake and loaf cakes because I mis-read Ina's instructions, which were a bit confusing. The ingredient list doesn't let you know that you'll be using that 3/4 cup lemon juice in two parts. Ditto sugar. So when I dumped all the sugar in the Kitchen Aid, the extra bundt cake was born. And while it's obvious from the ingredient list there's a glaze, it's not so obvious there's a syrup, too. I just re-write the recipe to suit me. No problem; the choir likes to eat, as does Word Team. Tonight, I'll bring the big bundt cake and a couple of pots of coffee.

How many cakes are you baking? As many as it takes to get it right.

Lemon Syrup Poundcake (new name): all done. Now I just have to make strawberry ice cream.
Ah gee. And...a Blueberry Drizzle. Could life be any more fun?

Pound Cake with Syrup and Glaze

Adding the last of the berries to the ice cream maker. I use David Lebovitz ice cream recipes almost all the time, but this one is in the book that came with the Cuisinart 2qt ice cream maker. The strawberries are marinated with lemon; half are mashed for freezing with the cream and sugar, and half are added during the last five minutes.

Blueberry Drizzle: Place one pint fresh blueberries (cleaned and picked over) in a medium saucepan with 1/4 cup each water and granulated sugar. If you like, you can add a large piece of lemon peel or a cinnamon stick, but for this recipe, the blueberries are best left to their own devices. Bring to a boil over medium heat and reduce heat to low, simmering and stirring the berries about 15 minutes. When they're softened, breaking apart, and a bit thicker, remove from heat and mash with a potato masher. Strain the mixture over a small bowl. Reserve the crushed berries for your peanut butter toast and use the strained liquid for your "drizzle," which is also good on pancakes or English muffins.

Two-Dog Kitchen and Around the 'Hood
Yesterday it was 60 and gorgeous. Today it's rainy and freezy and so gray.
I have no new pics of the dogs, but they are filthy. Friday: groomer.

New art in my kitchen. Did I already show you this?

Cold Chickadees

This is melted...and we now have Minnesota Mush.

Here's a Salmon Salad I made the other day for supper. It might make the blog.

4 comments:

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Among virtually every culture on Earth, anything worth doing is best done over dinner. Bring out a nicely braised roast, a hot loaf of bread, and a slice of lemon pie, and rifts can be healed, pacts sealed, loves revealed. Even the condemned do not want to leave the world without one last supper. --Natalie Angier

New York Times, November, 2000.

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike." ~ John Muir

“I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.”E.B. White

"We sing because we can."(John Bell)"And remember, anyone can cook" Auguste Gusteau."No one grows old at the table." (Italian proverb)"A fruit is a vegetable with looks and money. Plus, if you let fruit rot, it turns into wine, something Brussels sprouts never do."-PJ O'Rourke."Where there is cake, there is hope. And there is always cake." - Dean Koontz... plus..."Once, if I remember well, my life was a feast where all hearts opened and all wines flowed."-- Arthur Rimbaud.

When people were hungry, Jesus didn’t say, 'Now, is that political or social?' He said, 'I feed you.' Because the good news to a hungry person is bread." --Desmond Tutu"People who love to eat are always the BEST people."Julia Child.“I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud, because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish.” --Anne Lamott.

It seems that all my bridges have been burntBut you say that's exactly how this grace thing works.It's not the long walk home that will change this heartBut the welcome I receive with every start

-Roll Away Your Stone, Mumford & Sons

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant. --Robert Louis Stevenson

If we have no peace, it's because we have forgotten that we belong to one another. --Mother Teresa

Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. -Lewis Carroll, ALICE IN WONDERLAND

Psalm 96:1

Oh sing to the Lord a new song.

..

"I do not understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us." Anne Lamott

About Me

Church choir director, writer, avid home cook, recipe tester, and teacher, I'm married to the love of my life, the mom of great adult children, grandma to one adorable boy, and the owner of one spoiled golden retriever. Most of the time, I live right in Colorado Springs, but I also love in St. Paul, Minnesota (home of the best farmer's market in the United States) I support World Food Programme in the fight against world hunger.